Patchwork: A Horrific Love Story
by snowzone5
Summary: AU: Mike Wheeler dies in a horrible farming accident. Dr. Ellie Hopper does something no woman had ever done before and has never done since. She rebuilds Mike, and then takes on the daunting task of rebuilding their love. She will not let anything stand in her way, including the creature that will not let her have even an day of happiness. Angst and Mileven
1. Chapter 1 - El's Letter

**A/N: This is just a quick short intro to give you the flavour of the story.**

 **El's Letter**

Viktor had been waiting weeks for a letter from Waldman, and when the post arrived, he eagerly broke the seal and unfolded the parchment. It was not from Waldman, however but from one of his cleverest students, Miss Ellie Hopper. Curious, Viktor retired to the drawing room with a glass of port, and his pipe, he sat in his favourite chair in front of the fireplace, and read:

Dearest Viktor,

It is with a heavy heart I must write you this letter. You will forgive my presumptuousness when I tell you that you were mostly correct all along, but you made errors in your understanding. Alas, I fear I need to give you background as it is imperative you understand not only my predicament but the impetus that drove me to take the path I did, and what eventually led to this correspondence.

You will recall, the year we first met, that is, October of 1808, I was fifteen and a mere waif of a girl. You will also recall that my love, a certain Michel Wheeler, was my constant companion, and had been since we were but five years old. He would never leave my side, and I would never leave his. Our love for each other knew no bounds at the time, and believe me when I tell you , it knows absolutely no bounds to this day.

You were kind enough to indulge my curiosity by taking us to your lab at the University to show us your work and general teaching methods. Both Mike, for I had taken to calling him such. And he had taken to calling me El, as he detested the name Ellie with a passion. We were both fascinated. Fascinated by the instruments, the countless volumes of medical texts, the steam, the sparks. It was an education in itself to know that there was so much we _didn't_ know!

It was that brief time in our young lives that was to engage me in my academic ventures for the next ten years.

Unbeknownst to yourself, I followed your career as closely as I could given the limited communication we suffered at the time.

As a member of the fairer sex, it proved difficult to be given any consideration for application to academic studies. But I prevailed Viktor! As you know, I was given the opportunity to study under you at the University where you tenured.

Tagging alongside of me was my loving companion Mike, whose knack for engineering simple and complex instruments for a variety of disciplines, would prove to be his greatest achievement and his horrible undoing.

At this point, I feel I should explain the love I had for this boy. Because unless you fully understand that what we had for each other transcended time, the rest of my tale would be quite meaningless.

It is hard to put into words, in any of the languages I am fluent in what I feel for Mike. Even though Mike and I had known each since we were five, we would not truly fall in love until we were both thirteen. Then, we had both solemnly sworn to each other that we would be together forever. In life and in death. We have kept our promise to each other. A promise is something you can never break. Ever.

Mike would often bring himself to tears in an attempt to tell me how much he loved me. It was heartbreaking to see him struggle with words that just did not exist. We would fall asleep in each others arms in my father's hayloft more times than I can count. We hated to be apart. We would be physically ill if we were apart for very long.

Mike would frequently tell me that my life was more important than his, and I would return in kind. This kind of bond cannot be forced Viktor, it simply is! It is crucial that you understand this. Failure to do so will leave you blindly wondering why I did what I did.

But if you genuinely understand, you'll see that I had no choice. It was not something that required conscious thought. I was driven by a force that cannot be explained. I believe it was that same force that you refused to acknowledge, and ultimately led to the continual failure of your experiments.

Fear not, however, for you taught and had a determined student in myself.

My education, my experiments, and my conviction would lead me to accomplish what the great Viktor Frankenstein himself could not!


	2. Chapter 2 - Mike's Letter

**Mike's Letter**

Daylight was drawing to a close, and El had no sooner opened the door to residence at Ingolstadt when she noticed a flat topped steamer trunk sitting in the middle of the room with her name clearly carved on the front. The trunk's top had been unlocked and opened for her so she had little difficulty in retrieving the contents. Among the sundries, there were writing materials, including quills, notebooks a strange looking thin tube with a point like a knife, various scented soaps, teas, a teapot and a reading lamp, and of course surgical instruments.

Resting on top of it all, were two sealed letters, one from Viktor, which, of course, she had been expecting, and one… her eyes brimmed with hot tears, each threatening to spill down her cheeks... one from her soulmate. She broke the seal on that first, barely able to read through her blurred vision:

 _El my love,_

 _Firstly, I love you with all my heart. I know that it will soon sound trite, and I know it does not need to be said… but, yes it does! I need to write it down a thousand times. There is not enough parchment in all of Bavaria that will allow me to properly profess my love for you in script. You have my humblest apologies. If I am to be completely honest, I do not understand why you love me the way you do. I am most grateful to the heavens that it is so!_

 _I must admit, I thought I would last at least a week before I sat down to write you a letter. But it was not to be. My sincerest intention is to now have a letter posted that arrives soon after your ingress to the University of Ingolstadt. I will include one of my new contraptions, it is a much better version of what I am using to write this. You will see how quickly you can annotate your classroom notebooks with this instrument!_

 _It has barely been an hour since I watched your coach leave, and as you may have suspected, I had nothing, really, to say, other than, 'I love you'. I will attempt write often and if at all possible make my way to you for even the briefest of sojourns, despite the demands on my time._

 _I will love you forever, I promise,_

 _Mike._

El sank to the bare wooden floor, unable to keep her emotions at bay. She rocked back and forth, keening, with Mike's letter clutched to her bosom. She cursed all of science and her inescapable curiosity for its every locked door. She cursed its every darkened corner.

El did not make a lot of promises. She had seen others that made a promise on a whim, never really intending to follow through. She had, herself, made only one promise to Mike, and that was to love him forever. She would take that promise to her grave, and well beyond.

As she made tea on the wood stove, she made another promise. She would master the sciences being taught at Ingolstadt. All of them. And she would surpass them with her own discoveries, nourished by her on insatiable curiosity. She would do all that, and then she would return to the one she loved. There was absolutely nothing that could stop her.

Absolutely _nothing_.

The tea had the calming effect she had hoped. And she felt composed enough to light the reading lamp and sit in the lone chair that had been provided for her. She broke the seal on Viktor's letter:

 _Welcome student,_

 _I am bound and required, by the University of Ingolstadt's regulations and traditions, to send this letter of introduction._

 _What is it the English put so well? Horsepucky and poppycock! I am personalizing this letter to you Miss Hopper, because I look forward your insight into my theories and teachings._

 _I do confess that there will be times where it seems I am speaking only to you in the lecture theatre. That will be an unfortunate circumstance indeed, and I shall prevail to acknowledge the rest of my students, even though I am sure they will be ignoring me and focused on the only Fräulein they have set eyes on in many weeks. And a winsome one at that! Forgive any impropriety, I mean nothing by it._

 _I wish you all the success in your studies, but I predict, and with a certainty to which I feel strongly, that I will soon be learning from your own theories. When that day happens, it will likely be my greatest achievement!_

 _Your guide on your curiosity voyage,_

 _Viktor Frankenstein._

El put down the letter and took a sip of tea. She would be learning under the great Viktor Frankenstein. His work in Galvanism was legendary. He was onto something magnificent, and although she disagreed with some of his methodology and overall conclusions, she knew she had much to learn. This academic opportunity had not come easily and she would not squander it, or antagonize him with her endless questions contradicting his theories. She was the student here. Unitil she was able to prove herself that she was his intellectual equal, at least as far as his theories, or hers for that matter, were concerned, she would be his apt pupil.

She readied herself for bed. Daylight has long passed and she was ready to retire. Her thoughts turned Mike. This would be the first night in some time that he had not shared her bed. Stay those thoughts Ellie Jane Hopper! Down that path lies madness!

She had read his letter several times before sleep overtook her. Each time a rush of tears threatened to reduce her resolve, to diminish her curiosity enough to disregard everything and flee back to his arms.

She knew that Mike would never her let abandon her dream, he had faith in her sheer willpower to learn everything she could in the short time allotted to everyone on this earth.

The very last thing she wanted to do was to disappoint Mike. She would rather die first then see that look upon his face.

His unquestioning love and support for her, drove her need to show him that it was not in vain. She would return to him, a scientist, with vast knowledge of the world, and the humans occupying it.

El Hopper would be a force the scientific world would have to reckon with. First as a woman, and then, as a distant second, a scientist.

The world had no idea that she would twice, change the laws of nature.


	3. Chapter 3 - Dark Promise

**Dark Promise**

It is she who is the monster.

Not I.

I did not ask for this.I did not ask for life. _This_ is not life.

I asked for mercy. I asked her to let me die. But she refused. She was a madwoman, screamed at the heavens to give me life.

And some demonic power answered her.

I endure… utterly without hope. Nobody to love. Nobody who loves me. Who would love what I am?

I know not where she resides, but I _will_ find her.

When I do, I will make her life a living hell, much as my own has become.

She can then scream to the heavens to end her own sorry life, because I will not. She will suffer as I have suffered.

This dark promise I swear on the travesty that is my existence.

I promise.


End file.
